More catching up.

The Variety Show (see previous blog post) was a big success, I would say. It was very well attended, and should have brought in several hundred dollars. More importantly, it enlarged our understanding of each other. It revealed dimensions of the performers we had not been previously aware of. That was Sunday, the 11th. Monday, as I recall, was a quiet day at home. I was reading a Maisie Dobbs, mystery: The Messenger of Truth,I think it was. # 3 or 4 in the series, as I recall. It was well done - I am currently reading the next in the series, Among the Mad. I am enjoying them (again... I read several of them when they first came out, years ago). Tues., the 13th, was Vermont Primary Election Day. We had an interesting primary election - it is not every year we have the opportunity to vote for persons of color, and in this case, both a black woman and a black, queer man, running for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, respectively. The black woman, Esther Charlestin, won the Democratic primary and in November will be running against the incumbent, Gov. Phil Scott, a (rare) moderate Republican who is very popular and even attracts Democrats to vote for him. She is relatively unknown, and her only experience in an elected office is on the Middlebury Selectboard. She is not expected to win, but you never know.

Esther Charlestin lives in Middlebury, Vermont. She holds an undergraduate degree in history and communication. Charlestin earned master's degrees in corporate communications/public relations and in teaching from Sacred Heart University in 2014 and 2016 respectively. Her career experience includes working in higher education and the public school system. Charlestin was elected to the Middlebury Selectboard. She co-chairs Vermont's Commission on Women.************ Thomas Renner, who is Deputy Mayor of the town of Winooski, was running against a popular Democratic incumbant Lieutenant Governor, David Zuckerman. Renner did not win the Primary, but I expect we will see him again.

Thomas Renner.

A lot of catching up to do.

Wow! It has been over a week since my last post! A great deal has happened! There was a Variety Show at the Guilford Church on Sunday, August 11th; Vermont's Primary Election on the 13th; John and Cynthia came over for supper on the deck, Thursday, the 15th; Keith Murphy and Becky Tracy put on a concert at the Retreat Farm, Sat., the 17th; there was a Village Harmony Concert Sunday the 18th at the GCC; I had an appointment in the Urology Dept., BMH, on the 19th; the Democratic Convention opened on the 19th; we went on a Dinner Cruise on Lake Sunapee, NH with John and Cynthia, Tues., the 20th - that was yesterday. Whew!! Today I'm having a quiet day at home - which is why I have time to bring my blog up to date. It's close to 3p.m. and I'm still in my PJ's. It's nice to have a day like that now and then. The Variety Show at the GCC on the 11th was part of a series of fund-raising concerts at the church, going back to early 2023. Anyone who wanted to sing or play something, or put on some kind of an act, was invited to do so; Rachel Johnson organized it. I considered singing something, but wasn't sure my voice could be depended upon to "be there" when needed. So I opted not to. About 20 people did respond - and it was a fun, diverse, show indeed. There is a lot of talent in the Guilford Church! It was about an hour and half long, followed by a reception which Ellen helped put on.

Andy Davis with his Quebeois Woodshed Group - fiddles, accordians and piano.

Barbara Lee and Kachina Lee-Autenrieth in their "Skip-a-Beat Clown act.

Mary Brooke Grove playing a movement from the Sonata in F# Minor by Brooke Triplett Grove (1927-1973).

Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, with their grandson, Arthur (their son Sam's boy), singing Our Hamlet,, a very entertaining send-up of the play.

Connie Green and Rachel Johnson playing Telemann's Sonata in G Major for Flute and Piano.

Katherine Breunig singing Happiest of Times with Dinah. Dinah was Katherine's mother who died of cancer back in about 2000. If anyone "stole the show," Katherine did with this very touching song.

Bill McKim playing a Rachmaninof Etude.

Sue Owings and Terry Sylvester singing an "Old-Time Camp Song."

Brad Amidon singing "Welcome to the Renaissance" from the musical Something Rotten by Wayne and Katey Kirkpatrick. Brad lives near Boston and is not related to Peter and Mary Alice Amidon. His parents, John and Joy Amidon, were very active in the church years ago (both now deceased), and Brad likes coming back for special events like this.

Michelle Markus, clarinet, and Rachel Johnson, piano, playing Canzonetta by Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937).

The Final Day for us.

Today is our final day for the Marlboro Music Festival. There are rehearsals and a concert tomorrow (Sunday) morning and aftenoon, but we will be at church in the morning and a GCC Variety Show Concert in the afternoon. It is sad to have it end, but we have taken full advantage of it, and enjoyed it immensely. Meanwhile, car problems have forced John and Cynthia to cancel their trip to Grand Manan, at least for now. That is hugely disappointing to them, to say the least. So, we'll see what that opens up for us. Maybe something fun with them! Today we will hear a Schumann Piano Trio in G Minor, and Britten's Canticle IV: Journey of the Magi, Op. 86, for piano and three male singers: countertenor, tenor and bass-baritone. These are both new to us. Program notes: Robert Schumann, Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 110 (1851). Schumann: Born June 8, 1810, Zwickau, Germany; Died July 29, 1856, Bonn, Germany; Duration: approx. 28 minutes; Last Marlboro performance: 2021.***** Composed towards the end of his life, Schumann’s Opus 110 Piano Trio in G Minor has been grouped with other later works of the composer’s that are said to show signs of the deterioration of his mental health. However, the work is full of beauty, energy, and turbulence that are woven together in such a way that Schumann’s wife, Clara, wrote, “It is original and increasingly passionate, especially the scherzo, which carries one along with it into the wildest depths.” Though the work may seem to some to signify Schumann’s deterioration, it serves as a suitable final Piano Trio, imaginative, personal, and expressive. It has been played at Marlboro numerous times since its premiere by Marlboro co-founders Rudolf Serkin, Blanche Honegger-Moyse, and Hermann Busch in 1956. Participants: Sahun Sam Hong, piano; Clara Neubauer, violin; Christoph Richter, cello

Clara, Sahun and Christoph playing the Schumann Trio.********** Benjamin Britten, Canticle IV: Journey of the Magi (1971) . Britten: Born November 22, 1913, Lowestoft, England; Died December 4, 1976, Aldeburgh, England; Duration: approx. 11 minutes; Marlboro Premiere.***** Britten wrote five works which he titled ‘canticle,’ and each are settings of texts of a spiritual nature and scored for a different instrumentation. Canticle IV, Journey of the Magi, is a setting of a T. S. Eliot poem of the same name which explores themes of birth and death through the allusion of Jesus’s birth. The poem itself is not so overt in traditional Christian imagery, exploring instead the reactions of the magi, as Eliot appears to imply they would not be able to understand the miracle of the moment itself. Britten also uses the Antiphon melody, “Magi videntes stellam,” to tie together the Christian material. Although Britten’s other canticles have been performed at Marlboro, this will be the premiere of his fourth. Participants: Daniel Moody, countertenor; Daniel McGrew, tenor; Evan Luca Gray, bass-baritone; Lydia Brown, piano . ********************* The text of the Britten piece: Journey of the Magi. A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.' And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There were times we regretted The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces, And the silken girls bringing sherbet. Then the camel men cursing and grumbling and running away, and wanting their liquor and women, And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters, And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly And the villages dirty and charging high prices: A hard time we had of it. At the end we preferred to travel all night, Sleeping in snatches, With the voices singing in our ears, saying That this was all folly. Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley, Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation; With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness, And three trees on the low sky, And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow. Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel, Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver, And feet kicking the empty wine-skins. But there was no information, and so we continued And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory. All this was a long time ago, I remember, And I would do it again, but set down This set down This: were we led all that way for Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were different; this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death. We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, With an alien people clutching their gods. I should be glad of another death.

Performing the Britten: Lydia Brown, piano; Daniel Moody, countertenor; Daniel McGrew, tenor; Evan Gray, bass-baritone.

The Last Friday of the MMF!

Wow! We got here at 8:50 this a.m., in time for the Brahms Quartet in A Major. Fantastic! Today we will hear Brahms (2 pieces), Boccherini, Adės, Beethoven, Schuman and Bartok. We will have a full day of music. Meanwhile, John and Cynthi are struggling with a car problem just as they were planning to drive to Grand Manan for a much anticipated two-week vacation. But their Honda Fit has a clutch/transmission problem - stick shift, and it is very difficult to shift gears, sometimes impossible. Can't drive to Canada with that situation! They had planned originally to leave today, and had already delayed their departure because of Tropical Storm Debby coming up through Maine today. Torrential rain! Not fun driving. So, lots of things to figure out. We'll try to be of help some way if we can.

The Brahms quartet: Cynthia Raim, piano; Clara Neubauer, violin; Misha Amory; viola; Annie Jacobs-Perkins, cello.************************ LATER. The Brahms was followed by the Boccherini String Quintet, and that was followed by something we had not heard before: a piece for a String Ensemble of some 18 musicians titled, Shanty - Over the Sea, by Thomas Ades. It was unusual and quite lovely. Then there was a long lunch break until 2p.m., when the rehearsed the Beethoven Choral Fantasy, which is a decades-long traditional final piece of the Festival which will be performed this Sunday afternoon. That just ended, and they are re-setting the stage for the Bartok Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano. That will e followed by the Brahms Sechs Quartette, and that will be it for today. During the lunch break we ate in the car (because it was raining- Tropical Storm Debby remnants!) and then went down to West Brattleboro and got a maple creamee at Dutton's. I also called John and got an update on their car situation. No final solutions as yet.

Rehearsing the Beethoven Choral Fantasy. The chorus wasn't here today - they will undoubtedly come tomorrow.

The Ades, Shanty-Over the Sea being rehearsed.

Monday-Wednesday

We came home from Maine on Monday, but first we met Phil McKean and his son, Tom, at the Farnsworth Museum. We were joined by Mary Jane, a friend of Tom's from California, who had come out for the concert Saturday. We looked at one exhibit, and then had a picnic lunch in the Farnsworth garden. The exhibit we saw was Jamie Wyeth, works he had created that fell into a category of "Unsettled," i.e., works that expressed his fascination with the uncanny, with disease and death, with the "other-worldly," etc. It was a fascinating exhibit. This was evidently an important area for Jamie Wyeth - it was a large exhibit, filling two floors in a former church building which is a kind of annex to the regular Farnsworth Museum, called The Wyeth Center, in back and across the street:

The Wyeth Center.******************************************** Here are some examples of works in the "Unsettled" exhibit of Jamie Wyeth. (They are on my phone, which is dead, so uploading them will have to wait until tonight). I can just say now that the works in the "Unsettled" exhibit varied a lot, but had some threads running through them. I.e., several are of a figure squarely facing the viewer with his hands on his hips. This evidently represented for Wyeth a posture revealing another dimension - possibly a ghost, or a "visitor" of some kind. Most of the pieces are paintings, but one is a sculpture, and one is an intriguing "diarama,"

A full day!

Today is chock full! My retired clergy group met this morning at 10:30a.m. (Ellen brought scones as usual, though this time they were blueberry scones). We discussed the chapter on "Immediacy" in Joan Chittister's book. - more on that below. From there we came to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Cardiology Department for a 1p.m. appointment with Tammy Simpkins, NP. That went well - everything looked good and sounded good, heart-wise. From there we came to Marlboro, which I where I am now. At 6:30 there will be a GCC Council meeting. My cell phone is dead - battery needs charging and I do not have a charge cord. So, I can email using the Festival WiFi, but cannot make any calls.

Wind Decet, *********playing the Divertissment Op. 36 by Bernard.**************About Bernard: Émile Bernard: Born November 28, 1843, Marseilles, France; Died September 11, 1902, Paris, France. Bernard’s Divertissement for wind instruments was dedicated to Paul Taffanel, a flutist and conductor involved in multiple musical societies in France, including the Société de Musique de Chambre pour Instruments à Vent which he founded, and which premiered the work. The Société resembled the classical style Harmonie ensembles, which were small wind bands. Thus, Bernard’s Divertissement resembles classical Harmoniemusik in instrumentation, yet reflects the Romantic time period in which it was written. This will be the third time the work has been programmed at Marlboro, and the first time since it was conducted by Marlboro co-founder and flutist Marcel Moyse in 1961. Participants: Denis Savelyev, flute; Joshua Smith, flute; Frank Rosenwein, oboe; Donovan Bown, oboe; Javier Morales-Martinez, clarinet; Yuhsin Galaxy Su, clarinet; Joshua Butcher, bassoon; Natalya Rose Vrbsky, bassoon; Ryan Williamson, horn; Carys Sutherland, horn Immediacy. Going back to this morning, Joan Chittister says, in effect,"When you get old, don't ACT old." I.e., don't stop learning and growing, traveling and trying out new things. Don't use your age as an excuse for not doing something, assuming you are able to do it and it isn't dangerous to yourself or others. She argues that "acting your age" is good when you 17, but not when you are 77 (or 87). She actually overstates this a bit, and we took some exception to the way she puts it, but we get the point, which is consonant with all the other chapters we have read: when you get old, stay alive, active, inquisitive, etc. Being old is an opportunity, not a decline. Our group is getting more and mpre relaxed about sharing personal feelings and experiences.

Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun who is 88 years old. ******************* LATER I am now hearing a work by Brahms titled "Sechs Quartette," for piano and an SATB vocal quartet. It is a very well-blended group, and the piece is very Brahmsian. Beautiful. Here is the German text of the sixth song: Liebe Schwalbe, kleine Schwalbe, Trage fort mein kleines Briefchen! Flieg zur Höhe, fliege schnell aus, Flieg hinein in Liebchens Haus! Fragt man dich, woher du kommest, Wessen Bote du geworden, Sag, du kommst vom treusten Herzen, Das vergeht in Trennnungsschmerzen. Translation Dear swallow, little swallow, carry forth my little message! Fly up into the heavens, fly away quickly, fly off to my darling's house! If someone asks you from whom you come, whose messenger you are - say that you come from a faithful heart that is almost dying from the pain of separation.

ABOVE: The singers are sitting on the floor and sharing comments with the pianist on a performance of the Brahms piece they just concluded. BELOW:

The quartet singing the Brahms. Bridget Esler, soprano; Chihiro Asano, mezzo-soprano; Patrick Bessenbacher, tenor; Evan Luca Gray, bass-baritone; Lydia Brown, piano.

The Halcyon Quartet

Saturday evening we attended a unique event: a concert in loving memory of Deborah McKean that was much more than a concert. It was a performance by a string quartet, the Halcyon Quartet, given in the BroadBay U.C.C. Church in Waldoboro, Maine, but these were musicians with a mission to change the world by addressing the most important issues facing us as individuals and as a society. Things like climate change and the impact of social media on the mental health of youth. So it wasn't just music; it was music plus things projected onto a large blank wall: e.g., thought-provoking quotations and provocative short films created by the quartet using stop-action techniques. There was even a break in the concert during which we had the opportunity to talk with our neighbors in the audience and share our reactions, thoughts and feelings. It was unsettling and intriguing. And I would say, effective. The Halcyon Quartet is composed of Sophie Davis, Josie Davis, Colin Wheatley and Luke Fatora. Here are bio sketches of each:

This is how Halcyon describes itself: Halcyon is a collective. At our core, we are a string quartet however we often collaborate with musicians and artists from Maine and beyond to create unique and varied programs and performances. As performers, artists and collaborators, we strive to share our love of music in ways that foster connection, community, vibrancy, joy, warmth and accessibility. We strive to create programs that build partnerships with local community organizations and folks from all walks of life. Our performances are interdisciplinary and often involve a multimedia component. In each concert, we work to create a space that draws upon word, art and music to tell a story that is relevant to our community. They are fine musicians, so we were given a good concert, but with the added dimension that was very thoughtful and thought-provoking. Also, both Tom and Susannah were there, (from California and London respectively), both had written poems in honor of their mother, which were printed in the program, and Tom actually got up at the end of the program and sang his, accompanying himself on guitar. Keep checking here - I will add to it from time to time.

Above: The Halcyon Quartet performing Saturday night and two examples of projected quotations. .